


small talk

by sophh



Series: Shades of Heartbreak Weather [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Tattoo Parlor, M/M, Stars & Scars, Tattoo Artist!Au, Tattoo Shop!AU, wolfstar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-18
Updated: 2020-09-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:28:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26519791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sophh/pseuds/sophh
Summary: Remus accompanies James when he gets a tattoo and ends up meeting the tattoo shop owner's very handsome brother.
Relationships: Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Series: Shades of Heartbreak Weather [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1930666
Comments: 2
Kudos: 70





	small talk

James pushed open the door to the tattoo shop, Black Ink, and looked around. "Yeah, this is it, Remus," he called to the man behind him.

Remus hurried over, rubbing his hands together. "About time," he said, his breath creating white clouds when he spoke. "It feels like we've been driving around for ages. You really need to get your heat fixed, James."

James shrugged. "I will. Eventually."

"Well, you'd be able to do it _now_ if you stopped blowing all of your money on tattoos," Remus grumbled, eyeing the one on James' wrist—his parents' names—with some disdain.

"Excuse me, but would you mind closing the door? You're letting all the cold air in." A young man with dark hair and a rather haughty face had walked over. Remus' eyes widened as he took in the man's arms, which were completely covered in mesmerizing designs.

"Nice sleeves," James said, nodding at the man's tattoos.

"Thanks." The dark-haired man sized them both up before asking, "So, which one of you am I inking today?"

"You're the—?" Remus began.

He smiled briefly. "Yes. Regulus Black, at your service."

"Nice to meet you, Regulus. I'm James. I'm the one getting the tat. My friend Remus is just here for moral support," James explained, holding his hand out for Regulus to shake.

A moment later, Remus shook Regulus's hand too. The tattoo artist had a firm grip, but his hands were long and slender, almost effeminate.

Regulus gestured to the black padded chair that sat near the middle of the tiny shop. "This will be your seat for the next few hours, James, so be sure to make yourself as comfortable as possible."

James was getting a tattoo of his girlfriend's name on his upper arm. Remus had tried countless times to talk him out of such a permanent tribute, but James being James, he wasn't particularly worried.

"Lily will be thrilled," he kept saying. Privately, Remus didn't think so. His friend could be pretty stubborn when he set his mind to something, however, so Remus had offered to come along in case anything went disastrously wrong.

...

At first, Remus felt almost awkward, because there wasn't much for him to do except listen in on James and Regulus' conversation.

"Alright, James, tell me what you want," Regulus began. "On the phone, we had discussed you getting the name 'Lily' on your tricep, I believe."

James nodded enthusiastically. "That's right. My girlfriend's name."

"I remember," Regulus replied, and Remus had to stifle a laugh at the unimpressed look on his face. "I can show you some fonts so that you can decide how you want it to look, and then we can determine the size from there."

He pulled a thick green binder off of a small nearby shelf and rifled through it before handing it to James. James quickly looked through a few pages. "That one," he declared. He was pointing, Remus assumed, to the font of his choosing.

Regulus took the binder and contemplated it for a moment. "I suppose that will look nice."

"What, you don't agree?" James demanded.

"I think it's up to you," Regulus said without missing a beat. Remus had to admire his calm demeanor in the face of James' indignance.

"Remus," James said, twisting around to look at him. "Come over here and tell me what you think."

Remus sighed inwardly, but walked over all the same. Looking down, he saw that James had chosen a bold, angular script that was a bit difficult to read. He could understand Regulus' hesitation. Carefully, he said, "I think there may be other options you'd want to consider."

Just then, the shop door blew open, bringing with it a gust of icy wind and a tall, dark-haired man. Remus shivered and pulled his maroon sweater more tightly around himself before taking a closer look at the new arrival. This man looked similar to Regulus, he realized. He was perhaps a bit older, but he had the same nose and jaw. He also had the same dark hair, but his was longer.

Remus was intrigued by him immediately.

"Sorry I'm late, Reg," the man said. He held up a greasy paper bag. "Stopped for some lunch."

"Sirius," Regulus said sharply, "I'm in the middle of a brainstorming session with a client."

"Right..." Sirius plopped himself down on the chair Remus had occupied earlier. "You won't even know I'm here, don't worry, little brother."

Regulus rolled his eyes and turned back James and Remus. "Are there any other fonts you liked, James?"

James went through the pages again. Remus was glad to see that he was going a little more slowly this time. Finally, he settled on a different, thinner script with less angular edges.

"Can I see?" Sirius asked. He was already striding over before James had even given his permission. Remus swallowed nervously as he joined the little circle around the binder. "Oh, that's a good choice, mate."

"What do you think, Remus?" James asked.

Remus gave a nod. "Looks good." With that, he retreated back to the chair Sirius had been sitting in a minute prior.

Sirius followed him. "Remus, was it? I believe you're sitting in my seat."

"I was actually here first," Remus said politely. Sirius raised an eyebrow, and Remus instantly felt bad. This was the owner's brother, after all. "Erm, never mind. You can have it. I'll sit over there."

"Nonsense!" Sirius crossed to the other side of the shop and picked up the folding chair that Remus had indicated. "Here. Now we can sit over here together while your boyfriend gets his tattoo."

Remus laughed at the assumption. "James isn't my boyfriend. He's actually got a very lovely girlfriend, Lily. It's her name that he's getting tattooed on himself today."

"Wow. Must be serious," Sirius said. "But I notice you didn't deny being gay."

"I—what?" Remus was completely taken aback by the elder Black's blunt nature.

"When I called James your boyfriend, you didn't say, 'I don't have a boyfriend, I'm not gay,'" Sirius explained.

"Oh. I didn't realize that was what people normally said," Remus said, blushing. He hesitated, looking down at his lap as he spoke his next words. "But, erm, that isn't something I could deny."

"Good. You shouldn't," Sirius said earnestly.

Remus frowned. "I'm sorry, but do you usually try and determine someone's sexuality when you first meet them?"

"Only the ones I think are cute," the dark-haired man said with a wink.

"Oh," was Remus' intelligent reply.

...

"Want a chip?" Sirius asked. He showed the container of the greasy yellow food to Remus, who shook his head.

"No, thank you," he replied. He didn't add that he didn't take food from strangers, although he sorely wanted to.

Sirius shrugged. "Suit yourself."

Elsewhere in the shop, Regulus's tattoo pen whirred to life. While Remus and Sirius had been chatting, James and the tattoo artist had decided on the size of the tattoo. Regulus had then printed out the design onto a piece of thermal paper and transferred it to James' arm with stick deodorant.

"So how did your brother decide to become a tattoo artist?" Remus asked Sirius over the buzzing of the pen.

"Well, he was originally going to become a doctor like our parents wanted," Sirius answered. "You know, prestigious, well-paying...but he went to medical school and decided it wasn't for him, dropped out, and started doing this. And you know what?"

Remus shook his head. "What?"

"I couldn't be more proud of him."

There was a tender note in Sirius' voice, and at that moment, Remus wished more than anything that he had a brother, too. He had James, who was pretty close to family, but it wasn't quite the same.

Almost as if he had read Remus' mind, Sirius asked, "Do you have any siblings?"

"Oh, no," Remus said quickly. "No, it's just me."

"That's a shame. We didn't always get along, Regulus and I, but we made our peace with our differences."

Remus smiled. "I'm glad, Sirius."

...

Over the course of the next few hours, Remus and Sirius continued to chat about everything from their families to their hobbies to their dream jobs. Remus told the other man about his aspirations to become an English teacher; Sirius told him about _his_ aspirations to ride motorcycles as a stunt performer.

"You two seem to be getting on well," James commented at one point. He said this through gritted teeth, so it was a little difficult for Remus to figure out what he had said right away.

"Well, I guess we both need the company," Remus said, deliberately looking anywhere but at Sirius.

"Hey now, give me a bit more credit than that, Remus," Sirius said playfully. "I'm not _forcing_ you to talk to me."

"No, you're not," Remus admitted, keeping his voice quiet enough that only Sirius could hear him. He fiddled with a loose thread on his sweater as he continued to avoid the other man's gaze.

When Remus finally did look over at him again, Sirius had a triumphant grin on his face. "I knew you'd warm up to me."

...

"All done," Regulus announced, switching off the pen and setting it aside.

James winced. "Great. I think my whole arm fell asleep."

Remus watched as Regulus cleaned the fresh tattoo. It looked so striking against James' skin, even though it was a little red.

"Would you like a picture of it?" Regulus asked.

James nodded and waved Remus over. "Do you mind, Remus?"

Remus dug a disposable camera out of his pocket and went to snap a photo. Before he could do so, however, he felt a tap on his shoulder.

"Why don't I take one of the two of you together?" Sirius suggested. "You know, so you can look back and remember everything you both went through."

"Oh, but I didn't really do anything—" Remus began.

"You put up with me for the last four-ish hours, I'd say that counts for something," Sirius said. He nudged Remus towards James. "Now go stand next to James, would you?"

Remus felt self-conscious but did as Sirius asked. James grinned and flexed his arm while Remus stood stiffly beside him.

"Brilliant," Sirius said as he snapped the picture.

While Regulus was applying a protective ointment and bandaging up James' arm, Sirius drew Remus aside.

"I had a great time talking to you today, Remus."

"I enjoyed talking to you too, Sirius," Remus said softly.

"Would you ever want to—" Sirius stopped and ran a hand through his hair. "Would you ever want to do this again?"

"What, talk?" Remus was confused. "I—I suppose we could exchange phone numbers or something, sure."

"Well, talk, yeah, but maybe somewhere a little nicer. I was thinking over dinner?" Sirius gave him a hopeful look, and Remus suddenly felt as though he was looking at a puppy.

"Hang on," he said slowly. "Are you asking me out?"

"Yeah, I am," Sirius grinned.

"I knew it!" James yelled from his spot near the cash register. "I knew I saw a spark between you two!"

"I'm going to kill him," Remus muttered.

"No, don't. It's because of him that I even met you in the first place," Sirius pointed out.

Remus groaned. "Oh, he'll never let me forget that."

...

In the end, Remus scrawled his phone number onto Sirius' arm before bidding him and his brother farewell. James shook Regulus' hand, then gave Sirius a stern look.

"Remus is my best mate," he said solemnly. "Don't break his heart."

"James!" Remus hissed. He gave Sirius an apologetic look. "Don't mind him. He likes to feel big and powerful sometimes."

Sirius laughed. "I get it. I'd want to look out for you too."

Remus blushed again. "Er, shall we go, James?" he said, pulling his friend towards the front door.

"Thanks again for everything," James said over his shoulder.

Outside, it had begun to snow. Remus hurried over to James' car and wrenched the door open. "I really wish your heat was working now, James."

"Sorry, mate," James shrugged. "I'll get around to it soon, I promise."

"Right," Remus scoffed.

"Hey, it's not like you'll have to put up with it much longer," James said, turning the key in the ignition.

Remus stared at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

The smirk on James' face was infuriating. "Just that I have a feeling you might be riding around in _Sirius'_ car soon enough."

Remus crossed his arms and looked out the window at the falling flakes blanketing the streets in white. "Oh, shut up, James."

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Hogwarts Challenges & Assignments over at ff.net.
> 
> Prompts: "Tell me what you want," (character) Remus Lupin
> 
> I tried to make this as accurate as possible buuuut I've never gotten a tattoo before, so there may be some inaccuracies.


End file.
